Runestone from Reistad
The rune stone of Reistad ( KJ74 ; NIæR14 ) is a rune stone that was discovered at Reistad farm on the southern Norwegian island of Hidra , Flekkefjord municipality in Agder , in the 19th century. It bears an inscription in the older Futhark and is dated to the 5th century.
Finding and describing
The stone was discovered as a single find around 1858 while plowing at the Reistad farm in the north-western part of the island of Hidra not far from the coast of Hidra Sound. Since 1862 the stone has been in the collection of the Kulturhistorisk Museum of the University of Oslo (inv.no. C2837).
The circumstances of the find are unclear or have not been documented, so that the original location cannot be determined. There are archaeological indications that there was a former medieval, Viking Age farm near Reistad, the beginnings of which may go back even further. In terms of shape and size, the rune stone was not suitable for a solitary installation and will probably have been made as a grave monument - as is especially the case in Norway - as comparisons with other finds indicate.
The roughly hewn stone (65 cm × 60 cm × 22 cm) made of hornblende granite tapers in height on the basis of a straight lower surface, forms a blunt point and is heavily weathered over the entire surface. One broad side bears the deliberately planned runic inscription.
inscription
The three-line inscription is scratched clockwise from top to bottom, with the middle line taking up the entire width. The runes have a height of 7 cm to 8 cm, with some runes showing strong weathering. The rough, coarse shape of the entire inscription is due to the difficult installation due to the roughness of the stone surface.
- ᛁᚢᚦ ᛁᚾᚷᚨᛉ
-
(ᛖ) ᚲᚹᚨᚲᚱᚨᛉ: ᚢᚾᚾᚨᛗ
- ᚹᚱᚨᛁᛏᚨ
- (3?) Ingaʀ | (1?) Kwakraʀ: unnam [0-1?] | wraita (Kiel)
- Iuþingaʀ (e) k Wakraʀ: unnam wraita
"Iuþingaʀ [rests here] - I, Wakraʀ, know how to cut." (Krause / Jankuhn)
The inscription consists of two statements in lines 1 “Iuþingaz” and lines 2, 3 “Ek Wakraz unnam wraita”.
In the first line the ᚦ rune shows a hump that starts at the tip of the stick and ends at the bottom close to the lower end of the stick. Furthermore, it is noticeable that instead of the spelling of the ᛜ rune here -ng- ( ᚾᚷ ) was scratched with the runes Naudiz and Gebo . In Iuþingaz is a male person's name, the name of the old German Eodunc corresponds and in late antique inscriptions of the tribal name of Juthungen ( Iuthung-i ) is present.
In older research, the first word of the second statement was read as Ik . Wolfgang Krause noted that, however, the lower left stick together remnants of the middle branches of the place of the simple bar of the I-Rune ᛖ is preserved rune and upgraded to first person singular. Nom. Ek = "I". This is followed by another personal name "Wakraz", which is formed from an adjective such as German wacker, which is widespread as an element in the formation of names in Germania, among other things as Odin's surname, Old Norse, "Vakr" or horse names .
The second part of the statement after a word separator (line 2.2 and line 3) is the most difficult part of the inscription to interpret. unnam is determined as the simple past of the prefixed verb and -neman , or unþ-neman . The final wraita acc . Sing. Of an a-stem to either mask. Wraitaz or neutr. Wraita . Hence, controversial interpretations (James E. Knirk) have been made; Sophus Bugge let Wakraz do the scratching ("I Wakraz did the scratching") and for Carl Marstrander, on the other hand , Wakraz knew how to scratch with a runic magic component ("I Wakraz know how to scratch"). Marstrander's interpretation followed until today in the statement most of the science.
Thórhallur Eythórsson recently offered an alternative interpretation, who sees in the inscription a deed of ownership for a field / parcel in the context of the settlement of the island. He puts the accusative wraitaz in Old Norse reitr = "furrow, demarcated arable land", and in connection with Old Norse nema with reference to the place name Reistad he comes to the interpretation of the inscription as: "I have Wakraz, field". Eythórsson interprets the solitary first line and statement ek Iuþingaz as a designation of the tribe or family of the Wakraz - which would still give Knirk the character of a commemorative script.
literature
- Sophus Bugge : Norges Indskrifter med de ældere Runer. 3. Booklets. AW Broggers Bogtrykkeri, Christiania 1895. ( Available online )
- Wolfgang Krause , Herbert Jankuhn : The runic inscriptions in the older Futhark. (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen Philological-Historical Class. Third part, No. 65 I. Text). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1966.
- Eva Nyman, James E. Knirk: Reistad. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 24, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017575-4 , pp. 385-386. (for a fee in Germanische Altertumskunde Online at de Gruyter Online )
- Thórhallur Eythórsson: The Runic Inscription on the Reistad Stone: The earliest Landnámabók. In: Alfred Bammesberger, Gaby Waxenberger (eds.): Pforzen and Bergakker. New research on runic inscriptions. (= Historical Linguistic Research - Supplement No. 41). V&R, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-26231-0 , ISSN 0939-5598 , pp. 189-202. ( Digisat )
Web links
- Runic project Uni Kiel:
- Entry with images at the Kulturhistorisk museum
- Map view of the site at Kulturminnesøk.no
Remarks
- ↑ Eva Nyman: Reistad. § 1. Namely. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Volume 24, p. 385.
- ^ Frank Heidermanns : Etymological dictionary of Germanic primary adjectives. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1993, ISBN 3-11-013666-X , p. 645.
- ^ Carl Marstrander: A new perfect present. In: Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap 4, 1930, pp. 245-250.